The Stag & The Doe
by fuzzy1713
Summary: In their Seventh year, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher deems it time to teach his classes a challenging spell, Expecto Patronum. As we all know, Lily and James have complementing Patronuses, so how do the two react when they find out? Especially when James does his best to hide it from Lily and their classmates? A one-shot on how James and Lily became the couple we love.


**A/N:**** So this is a one-shot on how I think James and Lily officially got together. I got the idea from tumblr but the story itself is entirely mine. Let me know what you think as this is my first James & Lily story (and Harry Potter story for that matter)! **

* * *

"Good morning class!" There were a few grumbled responses, Lily's voice among them. Although Potions was what she truly excelled at, she'd never told anyone but secretly Defense Against the Dark Arts was her favorite. Given everything that was happening outside of the castle walls, it seemed to be the most pertinent and useful for the student of Hogwarts, Potions coming in a close second. Lily knew that not all of her classmates felt the same, for most the professor was too harsh in their minds. She just figured they didn't understand how important it was for them to know, especially as Seventh years. "I have a special lesson in store for you all, please follow me."

The change in locations seemed to catch most of her classmates attentions, including one James Potter and his merry band of followers. As she packed up her things to follow after Professor Stark, Lily found her gaze wondering over to said boy. Since the end of the previous year, to what Lily so pleasantly referred to as the Incident in her mind, when she'd lost her control with Potter and shortly afterwards her best friend, he'd been surprisingly…nice. He'd stopped asking her out every week and even started to pay attention in class a bit more. He still pulled pranks with his friends of course, but even those seemed to be less harsh and easier to forgive. In fact, they'd been able to have more than a few conversations since the beginning of term and not a single one of them had ended with either of them raising their voice or stomping away in anger. He'd changed and despite her misgivings Lily could feel herself begin to warm to the idea of befriending him. Now they were friends, of sorts.

"Gather round, gather round." Slack commanded once the class had entered a rather large empty class room that was just down the hall from their normal one. As soon as everyone had quieted down and surrounded their Professor on one side, he began speaking once more. "No today is a special treat for you all. We've been leaving this lesson until your Seventh year specifically because mastering this particular spell is a challenge even at this age, but it is important to know before you leave Hogwarts. Given…" He trailed off and no one needed to ask to what he was referring. The war outside the school walls had taken more than a few parents of students in the past few months alone. "Anyway, this incantation can be used to send messages, bring a bit of light in darkness and, most importantly, ward of a dementor or even a group if your spell is especially strong. Now can anyone tell me what we refer to this spell as?"

There was a moment when nobody moved before Lily's hand shot up followed shortly by, to hers and everyone else's surprise, James's. "Yes, Miss Evens?"

"Expecto Patronum." She spoke clearly and proudly, shooting a glance at James to see if he'd really known the answer. From the way he bobbed his head in agreement, he had.

"Correct. Five point to Gryffindor. Let's see if Mr. Potter can get five more." James's head snapped up, obviously having been conversing with his friends, Sirius and Remus. "How do you perform the spell Mr. Potter?"

A slight smirk reached his face, and Lily rolled her eyes. "Besides repeating the words our lovely Lily just spoke?" The entire class seemed to groan, while Lily simply rolled her eyes once more.

"Yes, Mr. Potter."

"A memory. Something that makes you happy. You concentrate on that and speak the spell and you'll get yourself a nice anti-dementor shield." From the corner of her eyes, she saw that he had glanced at her at the mention of 'something that made you happy'. She bit her lip to prevent a small grin from gracing her face.

"Thank you, another five points I believe. Although it is not quite as simple as Mr. Potter made it sound. The memory you choose can not simply be of when you win a game of chess or gain an O on a particularly difficult exam. It has to be something that makes you truly happy and then you must focus your entire mind on that memory. You must remember exactly how you felt in that moment and transfer it into your Patronus." With a flick of his wand, Slack demonstrated the spell, a beautiful silver Eagle erupting of the tip. "The Patronus itself is a manifestation of both your happy memory and your soul. As such, when two wizards have complimenting Patronuses it is believed to be proof of them being soul mates. For instance should a wizard produce a Lion and his wife produce a lioness, they would be considered soul mates." There was a murmur of excitement from the girls in the class, especially those with boyfriends.

"How often does that happen, Professor?" Inquired a rather mousey Ravenclaw, she, like most of the girls, seemed to be eyeing James, Sirius and Remus; who to there credit were acting rather oblivious to the attention.

"I myself have never seen it. However I have heard cases of it occurring." There was a disappointed groan from the girl and a few other near her and Lily tried not to laugh. "Now please, spread out around the room and attempt the spell. It's rather difficult, but I expect all of you to accomplish it by the end of today to receive full marks."

* * *

True to the Professor's word, no one had gotten the spell by the time half the class was over. Frustrated, Lily glanced around the room. The most she had gotten was a few spurts of silver mist to spring from her wand and few had even accomplished that. As she glanced around the room, her eyes landed on The Maraudors, none of whom seemed to even be attempting the spell. James and Sirius were laughing at some private joke while Remus was coaching Peter on another spell, which looked suspiciously like something they were supposed to master two years ago.

"Miss Evans?" Whipping her head forward once more, Lily saw that while she had been staring at James and his friends, their Professor had circled his way around the room to her. "Care to attempt the spell?"

Nodding slowly, she racked her mind for a new memory as the one she had been using previously didn't seem quite up to par. Anything about coming to Hogwarts didn't work properly because she would inevitably begin thinking of the hatred her sister now held for her. Same for any memory involving Severus, her old friend turned enemy. Suddenly her mind turned to last Monday, when returning from rounds she had found James sitting alone in the common room. Part of her had wanted to scold him for being up past curfew and then retire to the Heads Chambers, but something about his look had stopped her. He'd looked so…forlorn. Despite her better judgement, she had approached him. He'd remained ignorant of her presence until she'd sat next to him, which had caused him to jump in surprise. As it turned out, nothing was particularly wrong and the two of them had ended up talking for a few minutes. In that time, Lily had realized that James had really changed over the summer. He'd matured and she'd finally been able to look at him as something other than a prat. What she saw had surprised her. Not only was he handsome, but he was also caring and loyal to his friends. She'd learned more about him in twenty minutes then she had in six years.

Deciding the memory was as good as any, she raised her wand evenly and uttered the words, "Expecto Patronum." Instantly a silver shape burst from her wand and cantered around the room, dancing among the other students who had stopped to gaze in awe and admiration. As t went, Lily's eyes followed it trying in vain to decipher the shape. "What is it?" She murmured.

To her surprise it wasn't Professor Slack who answered but Sirius Black, who was clearly fighting back laughter. "A doe, Evans. How fitting." She furrowed his brow in confusing but he only shook his head and glanced at James, who was staring slack jawed at the silver doe that had returned to Lily's side.

"Very well done, ten points to Gryffindor for mastering the spell." Lily barely heard him as Slack walked off, too entranced by the beautiful figure before her. Reaching out a hand, the doe bowed her head into it before vanishing once more. Disappointed, Lily pouted for a moment before looking around the room once more. As if spurred on by her display, her fellow students were attacking the task with a new fire. Only Sirius and James seemed indifferent; Remus seemed to have given up on Peter and returned to the task at hand with Peter following suit. As if reading her mind, Slack approached them.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, would you care to perform the spell for me?" James's eyes seemed to cut to Lily before he glanced at Sirius who still had a smile planted firmly on his face.

"I would love to Professor." And with a flick of his wand, Sirius produced his own Patronus, a large canine which raced around the room before it too disappeared.

With a slight nod at him, Slack turned his attention to James. "And you Mr. Potter?" Again, James's eyes seemed to dart toward Lily before he shook his head and began whispering fervently to the professor. "So be it, after class than Mr. Potter." At those words, the smile seemed to slip from Sirius's face and he scowled at James before whispering a cutting remark to him to which he returned one of his one. From where Lily stood she couldn't hear what they were saying, but from the slight inclinations of their heads and hand gestures, it some how involved her and she was bloody curious. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she decided that she would remain behind after class and see why Potter was so nervous.

As the entire class filed out the door, all of whom had completed the spell before the final bell, Lily, James and Sirius lingered behind. Remus and Peter had left without a second glance at their friends, clearly eager for lunch and already well aware of what was happening.

Lily was pretending to fiddle with her bag strap in an effort to appear inconspicuous, but, given the present company, that didn't work. "Evans," her head snapped up to see Sirius studying her while James looked pointedly away. "Will you be leaving any time soon? I'd quite like to go to lunch and bloody Prongs here has to stay behind because of y-" Before he could continue, James cast him a glare and he cut off.

"Feel free to leave Black, I don't believe I'm stopping you." He glared at her, but complied anyway. Shooting one last look at James before disappearing out the door.

Turning back to my bag, Lily didn't miss the desperate look James shot her before Slack returned from settling his next class. Without casting her a second glance, he spoke to James. "Alright Mr. Potter. Let us see your Patronus then." Abandoning the pretense of her bag, Lily turned to watch. James swallowed hard as his eyes met hers and she saw something she'd never really seemed from James Potter before: fear. Before Lily could really contemplate why he was so afraid, he'd muttered a brief "Expecto Patronum" and a large silver shape had burst from his wand. Like hers, it galloped around the room, only stopping when it reached Lily. In that time, she'd easily recognized the animal and her mouth had dropped much like James's had earlier. Inches from her stood a silver Stag, an exact pair to her own Patronus. As she stood frozen, Lily could feel James's eyes on her, but refused to turn and face him. She was too shocked to think. Their Patronuses were a pair, matched perfectly, which meant that in some form or another they were soul mates. At that thought, her mind sparked back into action fully and a wave of emotion dropped over Lily.

"Very good Mr. Potter. Passing marks for the day. Good day." As Slack exited the room, Lily turned to face James, her eyes wide still.

From the corner of her eye, Lily saw his Patronus fade and she breathed out, "no" at its disappearance. Seeming to misunderstand, James's face plummeted and she rushed to continue. "I meant…can you…will you…please cast it again?"

"What?" He breathed out, clearly is disbelief at her request.

"I want to see him again, and…" Unsure how to voice exactly what she wanted, Lily simply turned and recast her doe before turning to face James. His face was priceless, and if she hadn't been so nervous Lily would have laughed. Without another word, he cast the spell and they watched as their two Patronuses danced around one another, taking turns chasing the other around the empty room. As they did so, Lily collected her thoughts and prepared to face James.

It was obvious now why he had looked so shocked upon seeing her doe, he'd clearly recognized it as a mate to his own Patronus, which he somehow already knew how to cast. It also explained why he'd waited until after class to produce it for Slack. He hadn't wanted others to see. What Lily didn't know was why. He didn't have many reservations about showing her his Patronus, otherwise he would have thrown a fit about her being in the room. Which meant he hadn't wanted their classmates to know. But that didn't make sense, was he afraid of what they would say? He'd been asking Lily out since fourth year, everyone knew he fancied her…or at least he used to.

At that thought, everything seemed to click into place. He hadn't asked her out once this year so far and he'd been much more pleasant. Of course he'd changed, he'd gotten over her. Immediately, Lily's stomach seemed to sink. She didn't want that. Yes for the past few years she'd hated that he had some stupid crush on her but with his sudden change this year, she'd allowed herself to admit that she fancied him too. But she was too late.

"Lily, please say something." Blinking, she glanced around and saw that the doe and stag had disappeared, leaving James and her alone once more.

Without thinking, Lily blurted out exactly what she had been thinking. "You're over me?" As soon as she'd spoken them, she wanted to take it back, but it was too late. To his credit, James didn't laugh or smirk or even speak for that matter. He seemed stunned. Taking advantage of his silence, Lily tried to rectify her words. "What I mean is, you obviously didn't want anyone else to see that our Patronuses…well that you and I both…well that." She gestured to where her doe and his stag had been a few minutes ago. "I just figured that was the only logical explanation." It sounded desperate even to her ears and she tried not to flinch.

Coming out of his fog, James gave Lily a look of disbelief. "You think that's logical Lily?" She smiled when he used her name, it was a recent thing and Lily found herself enjoying it more each time. "That's not the reason I didn't want everyone to see…" he hesitated, running a hand through his hair, messing it up more than it already was. "I wanted t-to, well to put it lightly, to save you the embarrassment. Up until recently, you've hated me and I didn't want to ruin that by showing the entire class that we were supposedly…" Again he hesitated and seemed reluctant to continue.

"That we're soul mates?" He nodded, no longer meeting her gaze. "I never hated you by the way, I thought you were a prat and big-headed. But I didn't really hate you." Lily's words seemed to sink in slowly and he raised his eyes to met hers again. They were beautiful she realized, a bright and intelligent hazel that didn't miss a thing.

"You didn't?" Distantly, Lily realized they were drawing nearer to each other, as if an invisible force was pulling them together.

"Not in the slightest." He smiled crookedly at that.

"And what about now?" She returned his smirk with one of her own.

"Quite the opposite really." A full blown grin was now stretched across his face and before she could say another thing, his lips were on hers. It was heaven, and Lily returned his fervor with her own.

After what felt like ages, they broke apart and he brought his forehead down to rest on hers. His eyes were closed as if savoring the moment and Lily couldn't help but giggle at the thought.

"What?" He asked, opening his eyes.

"Nothing." He pulled away slightly and raised an eyebrow. "Just…I'm happy."

His smile was practically blinding. "Found your new memory have you?"

Lily rolled her eyes and responded easily. "In your dreams, Potter."

"Always, Evans."

She smiled at him when a sudden thought crossed her mind. "What was your memory anyway?" A bright blush erupted onto his face and she laughed again. "That good?"

"No, well yes, but it wasn't…exactly a memory per say. More of a hope." Intrigued Lily waited for him to continue.

"Well?" She pressed when he didn't. He seemed to panic for a moment before turning the tables on her.

"Your so eager to know mine, what was yours then?" She sighed, but answered anyway.

"Us, I suppose." At the smirk that was beginning to grow on his face, Lily amended. "Not like that. The conversation we had last week. It was the first time you and I had had a proper conversation, just the two of us." Despite her attempt to stop it, his smirk appeared nonetheless.

"Oh, you do care." She stuck her tongue out at him childishly.

"Shut it. Now tell me yours."

Instantly, his nervousness returned, but he answered her question anyway. "I imagined how it would feel to have you finally agree to go out with me. It was simple after that." Lily stared at him for a moment, wondering why it had taken her so long to see how amazing he was.

"Ask me now." She gazed up at him as he ran another hand through his messy hair.

"Evans-" Lily sighed and he corrected himself. "Lily, will you do me the honor, no privilege of accompanying me on…" He trailed off, racking his brains for an idea.

"Three years and your suddenly coming up empty handed?" He grimaced and she watched amused as his eyes darted around for an idea. Deciding he'd had enough, Lily smiled and pressed herself to him once more. "James, yes, I would love to go on a date with you." Leaning up, she placed a kiss on his grinning lips.


End file.
